Theo Todman's Web Page - Notes Pages

Status Reports

Status: Summary (2015 - September)

This is a summary report with links to my various on-going projects. Detailed progress is shown on the sub-reports.

This summary report should highlight whether my focus has become unbalanced or otherwise inappropriate to the achievement of my major goals.

As these reports are rather a pain to generate, I now produce them quarterly, rather than monthly.

Projects in Progress

I have ten projects on which I would like to spend my time, which is too many. I had previously divided them into two groups, but currently I split them into three.

The first two groups have effort planned, but the final group does not, though I may address these three1 projects from time to time to keep them ticking over.

The first group relates to my primary (project) life-goals; the second relates to lesser things I really want to address; the final2 group relates to those I’d like to look into if I get ahead on the other projects.

Follow the hyperlinks for further details:-

Primary Projects

Research into Personal Identity3. This is the subject that ought to grab most of my attention, as it is the topic of my yet-to-be-completed PhD. I need to achieve something in philosophy, as this is the only one of my endeavours that promises a professional outcome (in the sense of being one of more than merely personal interest).

Studies in the Philosophy of Religion4. On and off, this represents the main preoccupation of my adult life (work and family aside). I intend to follow up in some detail interesting topics from the Philosophy of Religion module from the MA in Philosophy and Religion at Heythrop College, London University that I tasted at the end of 2010.

Development of Web-tools5. This project is intended to assist with the prosecution of philosophical research. It is fundamentally an enabling project, though one I hope will have general metaphilosophical implications. The above two projects are test cases of the method, as well as worthwhile studies in their own right.

Secondary Projects

Bridge6: I still want to become an expert player but I’ve decided that the best approach to improvement is not by just carrying on playing! I also need to respect the fact that I’m getting older and need to progress my philosophical endeavours while I can.

Music7: Improve my competence as an oboist, and learn the piano. I have recommenced regular oboe-practice in my new den, though piano-playing is dormant.

Chess8: Improve my standard of play so I can perform acceptably in the Essex, London, Middlesex … leagues (whenever I’m ready). This had been a dead project, though – given the hiatus with bridge - I intend to try to get myself back into some sort of shape.

Mathematics9: Revive / improve my mathematical competence with a view to the use of mathematics as a tool in my various other projects. Also – now that I’m nearly 62 – useful for keeping various bits of my brain functioning10.

Other Projects

Consciousness11 Studies. A supporting project for both Personal Identity and Philosophy of Religion. It hasn’t moved much recently, so I haven’t produced a status report so far this academic year.

HiQ13: Enjoy and contribute to the intellectual society of ISPE and Mensa (in abeyance, as I’ve allowed my membership of both societies to lapse again, am too busy, and currently don’t need the “fellowship”).

These projects are (approximately, in their respective groups) in order of decreasing priority, yet in practise the amount of effort expended on them fails to respect this. My intention is always to restrict the effort on Bridge, and focus on Personal Identity. Historically, this resolve has seldom if ever come to anything, but of late things have been moving in the right direction.

I have ignored the various infrastructural elements of my life in these reports – in particular family life, household management, general reading, culture, current affairs and such like. Thankfully, the main recent time-stealer – establishing ourselves in our new residence – is now a thing of the past.

This report and the sub-reports obtained by following the links immediately above show the current status. The report headings show the period the reports are for. Earlier reports can be found by following the links in the “Table of Previous Versions of this Note” further down this report, or in the sub-reports.

Planning and Actuals

3Q15 saw a diminution of time expended as a %age against plan, though this was partly on account of a holiday.

So, I achieved against plan 95% QTD, 97% YTD – where the year is the 2014/15 academic year commencing in October 2014.

The good thing was that the focus was on my two major projects – Thesis and Web-Tools – both of which were over budget. Bridge and Music were just over half plan – a first for Bridge! Religion and Consciousness scarcely got a look in.

The tables of actual versus plan are on separate pages, accessible from the following links:-

For detailed breakdowns of time spent this year, by month and by study location, follow this link14.

For a report by sub-project of time expended since my records began, follow this link15.

For tables of Actual versus Plan, together with the high-level plan for the next quarter, see this page16.

For the first quarter of the new “academic year”, I’ve increased the aggregate weekly hours to be spent on my projects by an hour to 5117.

Bridge has been released from “hold” as far as regular playing is concerned. I’ve to be careful that a social game once a week doesn’t escalate into anything more serious.

The figure for my Thesis is less than it ought to be, but may be approximately what I can achieve. What I still intend to work towards is to allocate to my Thesis the amount of time that I’d need to spend if I was pursuing my research part-time at Birkbeck – which would be something like 5 hours / day, 5 days a week – and then fit other projects around it.

However, I recognise that – temporarily at least – I will need to spend a lot of time on Web-tools, both on my own behalf and on the behalf of others, especially Bridge. Consequently, I’ve equalised the share of effort between thesis and web-tools, for another quarter.

As these reports are now quarterly, at best, I’m including a link19 to a brief uncommented list of what I’ve been working on since the last report (ie. this one). It is generated automatically from my time-recording system.

Its main utility (to me, at any rate) is as a quick jumping-off point for the various writings in progress or recently completed.

I’d actually wanted to increase a previous aggregate of 54 hours, but as I’ve never managed to meet this level of commitment, there’s no point.

Also, with the down-prioritising of the easy and relaxing (and evening-occupying) bridge in favour of more taxing endeavours, it’ll be difficult for me to achieve the planned productivity.

So, I’ve retained the planned aggregate approximately in line with my average over the last year – with a slight uplift to reflect the fact that I will be playing a bit of bridge – which is enough, I think.